I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself this at present - yesterday I got hold of a copy of the Sage Handbook of Tourism Studies, edited by Tazim Jamal and my colleague Prof Mike Robinson. There between pages 314 and 332 is my first ever book chapter, co-authored with Aylin Orbasli, one of the UK's top historic town specialists. We started writing the chapter more than two years ago, but the book has only just been published .
Whilst this time lag of two years may be standard in academic publishing circles, I can't help but think of the historic buildings that we will have lost during that time because of a lack of investment or planning.
In particular, I am thinking of the wonderful buildings
built of mangabe - fossil coral - in Yanbu Al Bahr, a small port on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea Coast. Dr Orbasli and I spent two years leading a team on the preparation of a masterplan for the protection, conservation and regeneration of the Al Sur district in Yanbu. Even during the study, buildings were collapsing or being demolished because the authorities thought they were unsafe. We submitted the final masterplan in January 2008 and a colleague who recently visited the area has told me that more buildings have collapsed in the last few months, and that there is no evidence at all of any investment in the site.
built of mangabe - fossil coral - in Yanbu Al Bahr, a small port on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea Coast. Dr Orbasli and I spent two years leading a team on the preparation of a masterplan for the protection, conservation and regeneration of the Al Sur district in Yanbu. Even during the study, buildings were collapsing or being demolished because the authorities thought they were unsafe. We submitted the final masterplan in January 2008 and a colleague who recently visited the area has told me that more buildings have collapsed in the last few months, and that there is no evidence at all of any investment in the site.So even if our consultancy reports sometimes fall on deaf ears, I hope that students who read our contribution in the new Sage textbook are able to carry on the message that tourism development can deliver real benefits for heritage conservation.
